COLUMBUS, Ohio—The game ended with the ball in Ben McLemore’s hands, which—never mind the 22 points he scored in Kansas’ 74-66 victory against Ohio State—didn’t really happen all that often in a game that lasted nearly as long as “Braveheart.”

In 40 minutes of basketball stretched over 2½ hours, McLemore kept surging into focus, delivering some devastating action sequence and then retreating to the edge of the frame.

Ben McLemore's supporting cast includes excellent defenders, such as Elijah Johnson, who allow him to focus on offensive dominance. (AP Photo)

“He’s just so effortless. And he doesn’t know what he’s doing yet,” Kansas coach Bill Self told Sporting News. “I think he’s still figuring out when to drive it, when to shoot it. Those things. He made some great individual plays.

“What he can do is, even when he’s laboring, he can go get you an easy basket. He’s figuring it out fast. When he gets to understand time, score and momentum, when to attack and when not to—when he starts figuring that stuff out he’s going to become a complete player.”

Meet Ben McLemore—the guy who might become the single most important factor in determining which team will win the 2013 NCAA championship.

He is a 6-5 redshirt freshman from St. Louis, once the sidekick to Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal on a pretty fair AAU team. You might have been introduced to McLemore earlier had he not failed to qualify for eligibility as a freshman, which kept him from competing for a KU team that eventually played for the 2012 national title.

He considers that circumstance a “blessing,” though, as it forced him to concentrate on proving he could thrive academically and, in basketball, to work strictly on improving his game during his first several months on campus.

Kansas has a terrific collection of players around McLemore, including three seniors who are either excellent (point guard Elijah Johnson) or dominant (center Jeff Withey, small forward Travis Releford) on defense.

Those guys could leave McLemore back in the dorm the next 2½ months and still go win another Big 12 championship. Having him grow into the focal point of their offense, however, will allow Kansas to seriously take a swing at winning the school’s fourth NCAA title. He must function as a star-level player in the circumstances that require the signature of a star.

“To be honest with you, you don’t score off of plays late in games. You score off of players,” Self said. “We did a better job today. They played good defense, so you beat a guy, force help and go get a basket.

“He makes plays you can’t coach. You run average offense, pitch it to him and he jumps over someone and he makes a shot. That’s not great offense. That’s just a good player. That’s what I like.”

The honest truth about the Ohio State game is that McLemore’s partner on the wing played the greatest role in KU’s victory. Although McLemore led KU in scoring and hit 3-of-6 from 3-point range, Releford was the one responsible for eliminating Buckeyes’ star Deshaun Thomas in the second half.

After starting with the natural matchup of forward Kevin Young against Thomas, Self saw enough of Thomas’ threat early to switch his best defender to the assignment and order him not to offer help. Eventually, Self increased the attention paid to Thomas by instructing the Jayhawks to switch any exchange that involved him, and by double-teaming on those rare occasions Thomas actually touched the ball.

Ohio State’s counter was a drive-and-kick approach, the problem being the kick-ees. Even if Jon Diebler walks through that door, maybe for a visit, he has no eligibility left. So Ohio State had wings Sam Thompson and Lenzelle Smith taking the shots, and they were a combined 0-for-8 in the second half even though they were firing mostly unguarded jumpers. Ohio State went more than 10 minutes during the second half without a field goal, falling from a 40-37 lead to a 53-48 deficit.

“Travis played great defense on Deshaun Thomas,” Withey said. “We kind of focused on him, knowing he could go off for 30 easily. I wasn’t aware they didn’t score the ball for that long. It felt like it was a really tough game the whole time.

“We shut down their best scorer. Ben played great defense. Elijah played great. Everybody did their job.”

Although KU wound up shooting 51 percent for the game, OSU did not defend poorly. The Buckeyes attacked the ball well enough to force 19 turnovers and turned those into 23 points. But Withey’s size helped him to score 14 over the smaller Buckeyes and McLemore’s brilliance kept flashing just long enough for him to contribute an essential basket here and there, such as the personal four-point run he delivered late in the game to carry a six-point lead into double-digits.

When the Jayhawks lost their only game this season—to Michigan State on Nov. 13—McLemore scored 14 points but took only seven shots. It was clear he was not active enough, particularly for someone with the potential to greatly influence the game.

The coaches’ message did not change. Self reiterated that McLemore must look to drive the ball because he’s the one KU player dynamic enough to shred even sturdy defenses from the perimeter.

“Since I first got here, Coach was like, ‘Shoot the ball, don’t be afraid, be more aggressive,’ ” McLemore said Saturday night. “That’s all I’ve been doing.”

Self says McLemore will become more dominant as he continues to grow his understanding of the game. Though he has coached great wing players at KU before, including the Golden State Warriors’ Brandon Rush, Self declares, “I’ve never had anybody like this guy.”

The difference?

“Ben can impact the game more because he’s a better scorer,” Self said. “He’s fun to coach because you can tinker around and draw up some plays that you can’t draw up for anybody else.”